Renesas Electronics Corporation, a leading provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced RZ/N2L microprocessor units (MPUs) for industrial Ethernet communications that make it easy to add networking functionality to industrial equipment and devices.
The RZ/N2L conforms to many industry standard specifications and protocols to facilitate the development of industrial automation devices that require real-time capabilities. The new products support the increasingly popular Ethernet Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) standard, which ensures real-time communication.
Equipped with a TSN-compatible 3-port Gigabit Ethernet switch and an EtherCAT slave controller, the new devices also support all major industrial network communication protocols such as EtherCAT, PROFINET RT, EtherNet/IP and OPC UA, as well as the new PROFINET IRT.
“Revising the complete equipment design to implement Industrial Ethernet functionality creates a substantial development burden in terms of time and cost,” said Hitoshi Shirakabe, VP of Renesas Industrial Automation Business Division. “To meet this challenge, Renesas developed the RZ/N2L, which is optimized as a complement to existing systems. I am confident this will enable customers to quickly deploy cutting-edge industrial networks with minimal system modifications.”
By using the RZ/N2L as an add-on chip that complements the host CPU, customers can add Industrial Ethernet functionality to their equipment without major changes to its internal configuration. This allows customers to develop industrial equipment using fast and accurate synchronized control for factory automation.
“I anticipate that RZ/N2L, which supports the rapidly growing TSN standard, will further accelerate the spread of Ethernet in the factory automation market,” said Dietmar R. Franke, CEO/CFO of Port Industrial Automation GmbH. “We are planning launch GOAL middleware for RZ/N2L targeting real-time multi-protocol communication to help our customers implement Industrial Ethernet communication technology in their devices.”
A complementary network chip
The RZ/N2L has parallel and serial host interfaces that connect to the host CPU for external applications. This allows direct connection between the RZ/N2L and the CPU for high-speed access. Additionally, the external CPU can directly access communication data stored in the RZ/N2L's system RAM. Because the RZ/N2L can perform network processing independently of the external CPU, Industrial Ethernet can be added to systems without requiring major changes to existing application software.
The RZ/N2L is built around the Arm Cortex-R52 with a maximum operating frequency of 400 MHz. It integrates large capacity ECC RAM and peripheral functions such as delta-sigma interface, A/D converter and PWM timer, allowing the RZ/N2L be used as a standalone device to develop applications such as remote I/O, sensor hubs and inverters.
The UART and CAN functions allow the RZ/N2L to serve as a gateway for converting an RS485 or CAN-based fieldbus to Industrial Ethernet.
Security support
The RZ/N2L can also be used as an MPU that supports functional safety. Functional safety solutions from Renesas, such as self-diagnosis software for RZ/N2L, functional safety platform software soon to be offered by Renesas, and secure networks can reduce the time and workload associated with development. Renesas plans to launch a functional safety solution for the RZ/N2L in 2023.
